The Channel Between The Buoys
Sermon
Wearing The Wind
First Lesson Sermons For Sundays After Pentecost (Middle Third)
"Let's go boating!"
How I love to hear those words! It means open sky, shore birds, negotiating the chop on the sea, perhaps a water-borne adventure out to Bald Head Island!
I must confess I'm new at nautical adventures. I've shown my ignorance by running out of gas, falling overboard, even running aground.
Mishaps don't have to happen very often before one begins to learn fast. For instance, I'm learning to read buoys, channel markers, even the color of the water -- all signs of where safe passage lies.
Believe-you-me, the fun goes out of a boating trip quickly when you run aground and have to wait six hours for the tide to change. The mosquitoes and sun are glad for your flesh. But they're the only ones.
So, a boatman can learn the hard way or he can learn to read the buoys others passing before him have left.
Such is life in the broader sense. For there are but two ways to learn. One may learn from God and others gone before. Or one may learn everything on his own, the hard way.
The Book of Proverbs is a book of buoys marking out the safe channels of life. It represents the ripened wisdom of many generations.
"Wisdom" in the Hebrew language is chokmah. A hard to translate word, wisdom vaguely means the ability to meet each challenge put before you so as to get the best results.
No generation wants wisdom uncultivated. And, gladly, the Book of Proverbs is a rich deposit of wisdom. Indeed, it is the first book of wisdom literature known to humanity.
Proverbs was written primarily by King Solomon. But others before and after contributed also. It includes truisms, pithy sayings, folk wisdom, and advice memorably written as a guide to choice behavior. And when one internalizes it, Proverbs becomes an inner compass guiding one's behavior.
Here in the United States Ben Franklin, our 1776 elder statesman from Pennsylvania, wrote and collected wisdom literature in The Sayings of Poor Richard. "A stitch in time saves nine." "The early bird catches the worm." But, alas, Franklin's wisdom literature was only "this-worldly" and not "other-worldly," too. Hence, it left God out of the human endeavor. Proverbs in the Old Testament is both earthly and heavenly. And, as such, it gives advice on sex, work, loans, speech, anger, marriage, criticism, humor, and so much more!
Check out the text, Proverbs 1:20-33. Wisdom is likened to a woman walking the streets crying out for men to draw near. To the ancient reader, this, indeed, was a shocking metaphor! A lady of breeding stayed home. When she had to venture out it was always with a veil, hair put up, and with a chaperone. The idea of a lady walking the streets raising her voice in the market (v. 20), crying out on city walls (v. 21), and speaking to men at city gates (v. 21) was unthinkable.
Yet one sees here how very serious God is about making himself known among beggars, sellers, farm hands, criminals, and the well-to-do of every town.
Notice that Lady Wisdom walks among us and sees three sorts of people.
She spies the "simple" (v. 22). These are the untutored youths of society. Proverbs 1:4 says the entire book was written "that prudence may be given to the simple; knowledge and discretion to the youth."
Dame Wisdom also sees the scoffer on city streets. She asks, "How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing?" (v. 22). Psalm 1:1 speaks of persons who "sit in the seat of scoffers" rather than delight in God. They are interested in no one's advice but their own.
Third, our woman of wisdom sees fools. In Hebrew, literally, "fool" is kesil, those who "hate knowledge." They live for themselves, for today only.
To the simple, the scoffer, and the fools of every town wisdom "cries," "raises her voice" (v. 20), "speaks" (v. 21), "reproves," pours out her thoughts (v. 22). She stretches out her hands (v. 24), and she laughs and mocks (v. 26).
Do you sense her urgency in imparting wisdom for life?
Wisdom knows if she is "ignored" (v. 25) people will fall into "calamity" (v. 26), panic will strike like a storm (v. 27), and people will "eat the fruit of their way" (v. 31). She even mentions untimely death (v. 32).
Ah, but the wise "will dwell secure" (v. 33).
In 1 Kings 3 God Almighty invited King Solomon to "ask what I shall give you" (v. 5). Solomon asked for wisdom as he went in and out among the people. And his petition pleased God in that Solomon did not ask for the usual -- money, health, long life, the death of his enemies, and so on! So God granted Solomon wisdom -- the ability to meet each challenge put before him so as to get the best results. And in finding wisdom Solomon also found long life, wealth, family, and even a life that outlived his enemies.
If you study Proverbs, the wisdom of Solomon, you'll find it 31 chapters long. There is a chapter for each day of the month. This book cries out to you; wisdom holds out her hands to you pleadingly. Will you turn aside to learn?
How I love to hear those words! It means open sky, shore birds, negotiating the chop on the sea, perhaps a water-borne adventure out to Bald Head Island!
I must confess I'm new at nautical adventures. I've shown my ignorance by running out of gas, falling overboard, even running aground.
Mishaps don't have to happen very often before one begins to learn fast. For instance, I'm learning to read buoys, channel markers, even the color of the water -- all signs of where safe passage lies.
Believe-you-me, the fun goes out of a boating trip quickly when you run aground and have to wait six hours for the tide to change. The mosquitoes and sun are glad for your flesh. But they're the only ones.
So, a boatman can learn the hard way or he can learn to read the buoys others passing before him have left.
Such is life in the broader sense. For there are but two ways to learn. One may learn from God and others gone before. Or one may learn everything on his own, the hard way.
The Book of Proverbs is a book of buoys marking out the safe channels of life. It represents the ripened wisdom of many generations.
"Wisdom" in the Hebrew language is chokmah. A hard to translate word, wisdom vaguely means the ability to meet each challenge put before you so as to get the best results.
No generation wants wisdom uncultivated. And, gladly, the Book of Proverbs is a rich deposit of wisdom. Indeed, it is the first book of wisdom literature known to humanity.
Proverbs was written primarily by King Solomon. But others before and after contributed also. It includes truisms, pithy sayings, folk wisdom, and advice memorably written as a guide to choice behavior. And when one internalizes it, Proverbs becomes an inner compass guiding one's behavior.
Here in the United States Ben Franklin, our 1776 elder statesman from Pennsylvania, wrote and collected wisdom literature in The Sayings of Poor Richard. "A stitch in time saves nine." "The early bird catches the worm." But, alas, Franklin's wisdom literature was only "this-worldly" and not "other-worldly," too. Hence, it left God out of the human endeavor. Proverbs in the Old Testament is both earthly and heavenly. And, as such, it gives advice on sex, work, loans, speech, anger, marriage, criticism, humor, and so much more!
Check out the text, Proverbs 1:20-33. Wisdom is likened to a woman walking the streets crying out for men to draw near. To the ancient reader, this, indeed, was a shocking metaphor! A lady of breeding stayed home. When she had to venture out it was always with a veil, hair put up, and with a chaperone. The idea of a lady walking the streets raising her voice in the market (v. 20), crying out on city walls (v. 21), and speaking to men at city gates (v. 21) was unthinkable.
Yet one sees here how very serious God is about making himself known among beggars, sellers, farm hands, criminals, and the well-to-do of every town.
Notice that Lady Wisdom walks among us and sees three sorts of people.
She spies the "simple" (v. 22). These are the untutored youths of society. Proverbs 1:4 says the entire book was written "that prudence may be given to the simple; knowledge and discretion to the youth."
Dame Wisdom also sees the scoffer on city streets. She asks, "How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing?" (v. 22). Psalm 1:1 speaks of persons who "sit in the seat of scoffers" rather than delight in God. They are interested in no one's advice but their own.
Third, our woman of wisdom sees fools. In Hebrew, literally, "fool" is kesil, those who "hate knowledge." They live for themselves, for today only.
To the simple, the scoffer, and the fools of every town wisdom "cries," "raises her voice" (v. 20), "speaks" (v. 21), "reproves," pours out her thoughts (v. 22). She stretches out her hands (v. 24), and she laughs and mocks (v. 26).
Do you sense her urgency in imparting wisdom for life?
Wisdom knows if she is "ignored" (v. 25) people will fall into "calamity" (v. 26), panic will strike like a storm (v. 27), and people will "eat the fruit of their way" (v. 31). She even mentions untimely death (v. 32).
Ah, but the wise "will dwell secure" (v. 33).
In 1 Kings 3 God Almighty invited King Solomon to "ask what I shall give you" (v. 5). Solomon asked for wisdom as he went in and out among the people. And his petition pleased God in that Solomon did not ask for the usual -- money, health, long life, the death of his enemies, and so on! So God granted Solomon wisdom -- the ability to meet each challenge put before him so as to get the best results. And in finding wisdom Solomon also found long life, wealth, family, and even a life that outlived his enemies.
If you study Proverbs, the wisdom of Solomon, you'll find it 31 chapters long. There is a chapter for each day of the month. This book cries out to you; wisdom holds out her hands to you pleadingly. Will you turn aside to learn?
